Changing Media Player Skins

Written by Barry Dysert (last updated September 19, 2016)

Windows Media Player is a fairly sophisticated program with a lot of functionality. One of the functions you can perform is the changing of the skins it uses. There are many free skins available, and the "official" skins can be downloaded by going through Media Player itself.

To change skins, launch Windows Media Player and go to View | Skin Chooser. Media Player displays the skins available on your system. (See Figure 1.)

Figure 1. Windows Media Player skin chooser.

Click the More Skins button and your Internet browser will take you to Microsoft's site that holds many skins. You can browse this site for something you like and download it from within your browser. Skins have a file type of ".wmz" and Media Player looks for them in the "Program Files\Windows Media Player\Skins" folder.

After you've gotten your new skin, Media Player will recognize it and display it as an available skin. (It will appear at the left side of the skin chooser area in Media Player.) To use the new skin, click its name and then click the Apply Skin button. From that point forward you can use Media Player with the new skin.

 This tip (12679) applies to Windows 7.

Author Bio

Barry Dysert

Barry has been a computer professional for over 35 years, working in different positions such as technical team leader, project manager, and software developer. He is currently a software engineer with an emphasis on developing custom applications under Microsoft Windows. When not working with Windows or writing Tips, Barry is an amateur writer. His first non-fiction book is titled "A Chronological Commentary of Revelation." ...

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